Decorator destroys his work after left out of pocket by customer

Recently, a decorator who claimed he was left out of pocket by a customer admitted that in retaliation, he threw paint all over his own work. Following this, the painter and decorator was charged with causing criminal damage to the home he was working on. Alongside this, he was also handed a “one-year conditional discharge” by the court.

However, the magistrates refused to order compensation after both sides of the story was revealed. The worker was paid £300 at the start of the job to purchase materials. He then went on to spent £450 on paint with the agreement that he would be paid a total of £640 for the job. After that, if the job was well done, the customer also agreed to pay him £1,250 to paint the rest of the house.

However, an argument broke out between the worker and the customer. This then led to Darryl not getting paid for his week of work, prompting him to send “angry emails and threatening to damage the work.”

No contract was drawn up between the contractor and client either. However, there were “messages demanding money and insinuating they would be sorry if they didn’t pay and that he would ruin everything he had done.”

Surprisingly though, this isn’t the only case where homeowners refuse to pay. It’s quite common. Apparently, builders are actually owed a whopping £30 billion due to late payments! Of course, there are more than a few ways to get back at someone for late payments though. In ways other than destroying your own work like this guy. Something possibly like this maybe…

So what do you think of this? How would you deal with a non payer? Let us know in the comments below.